Martinsburg daily gazette. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1887-1887, 1887-05-20
IN A SUN CLUSTER.
LIFE IN CONSTELLATION HERCULES
A NEVER ENDING DAY.


Perpetual Daylight-Tho Light Of
Fifteen Moons.
In the constellation Hercules there is a
compact star cluster well known to the
owners of powerful telescopes as one of
the most interesting and wonderful
phenomena to be found in the heavens.
To the naked eye it looks like faint star.
In the telescope it appears as spherical
mass of stars, with short, struggling
streams, also composed of stars, radiat;ng
from it. William Herschel computed the
number of stars in this cluster 1T not less
than Ia, 1000. In the center they appear
so compressed that it is impossible to
count them. OF course every one Of the
members of this starry swarm is sun,
and astronomers have sometimes piaucd
their imagination by wondering what
must be the condition of things prevailing
iHsuch a system of suns, and what results
flow from the inevitable laws of gravita-
ton there. Could inhabited worlds exist
in sun cluster?
Take the bright star Sirius, the most
brilliant fixed star in the heavens Any
one who wishes can see it in tie southern
heavens early in the evening ut this sea
son. Various estimates of the light of
Sirius have made it from one twenty
thousand-millionth up to about one five
thousand-millionth of the suns light.
Suppose we adopt the latter figure as be-
ing the most favorable to Sirius. Then
comparing this with the fraction repre-
senting the light of a star in Hercules us
seen from its nearest neighbors in corl-
parison with that of the sun, namely, one
ee-million-siX hundred thousandth, we
find that the light Ct the star is nearly
400 times as great as the light that SIR
ius sends to us. In other words, if we
could visit the cluster in Hercules, we
should find that its stars, as seen from q
distance Of 5000, 600, 900 miles, their. aver
age distance apart, would shine / 400
times as bright as Sirius shines in our
sky.
Sirius is probably 500 times rs bright as
the faintest star that the naked eye per-
ceiyes on clear night. Then imagine a
star three times as much brighter than
Sirius as Sirius is brighter than the
smallest star You can see, and you will
have some notion of the brilSancy of the
stars i'll question as seen from one an
other.
A PERPETUAL DAYLIGHT.
Now let us suppose world revolving
around II star situated mt the center Of the
cluster. Assuming that the surrounding
stars are arranged ia a pretty symmetrical
way, there would be dozen of them
within distance of 5000, 900, 900 miles,
and each of these would, as seen from the
world at the center, appear 400 times
brighter than Sirius appears to us. There
would be upward of fifty stars twice as
far away, each of which would be $50
times as bright as Sirius. Thus the stars
of the cluster, as seen from the center,
would go on increasing in number and di-
minishing in brightness, but as the total
number is limited to $4,000 or Is, 900, the
outermost stars would be approximately
135, 200, 900, 600 miles away. and each
would shine six times as bright as Sirius
1t is apparent that there would be q
sort of perpetual daylight at the center Of
such a congregation of suns Let us see
about how bright this kght would be. OF
course our supposititious planet might re-
ceive from the sun to which it belonged as
brilliant daylight as our sun gives to
us, but what would be the illumination Of
its nights, or, In other words, of that side
of it which was turned away, from its
sun? Zollner has estimated the light Of
the sun to be 618, 900 times as great as
that of the full moon. This, upon the esti-,
mate of the amount Of Sirius light as
compared with the SUMS that we have
adopted, would give the moon about 8, 0009
times as much light as Sirius. :,
EQUAL TO FIFTEEN MOONS.
Since each of the stars in the cluster
has II 400 times the light Of Sirius, at o.